This application relates generally to golf. More particularly, this application relates to an accessory that is attachable to a putter, and which facilitates aiming and use of a putter.
The sport of golf has been a popular pastime for many years. It is a game where skill, practice and knowledge all play important rolls when learning to master the game. Good hand-eye coordination is paramount; repeated practice can improve predictability of results; and accumulated knowledge can make decisions easier to make. There are several components of golf that are generally related to the distance of a golf ball to a hole. They are the long game, the short game, and putting. Each component requires slightly different skill sets, which, though not mutually exclusive, are difficult to master equally. Of the three, putting is the most challenging and the most unforgiving. If a person does not correctly read a green and putter is incorrectly aimed, a golf ball can easily miss the cup on the first try and the person must make one or more additional putts to hole out. If a putter is not correctly held throughout the putting stroke, the golf ball can easily veer away from the cup and the person must make one or more additional putts to hole out. This can be the difference between a good golfer and a great golfer.
Usually, it takes many hours of practice in order to learn how to read a green and to putt correctly. Unfortunately, many people do not have the time or inclination to develop this skill and this ability often eludes even the most ardent practitioners of the sport.
Over the years, various devices have been developed to help train a person to become a better putter in a shorter amount of time. Some of these devices are in the form of rods or bars that guide a golf ball toward the sweet spot of a putter, while other devices take the form of ancillary striking surface. A drawback with such devices is that they only interact with a golf ball when the putter is in a forward portion of the swing. This can result in improper alignment between the arc of the putting swing, the golf ball and the aiming point on the green (this is usually the hole, but it may vary if the green is not entirely horizontal and flat). Other devices are designed to be used with only a blade style putter, which is thin and has front and rear surfaces that are parallel to each other. A drawback with many of such devices is that if a golfer's preferred putter is not a blade style, the device cannot be attached to the preferred putter. In such a situation, a person wanting to use the device would be forced to practice with a putter that that the person does not normally use during regular play. And, because the dynamics of putters vary according to their styles, the putting device would lose its effectiveness because it was not used with the person's preferred putter. Further, many of the above devices are not useable with both left and right handed putters. For example, a dedicated left-handed putting device cannot be used on a right-handed putter.
Other devices are expensive, complicated, cumbersome and difficult to use. They often have many components and require many steps to connect it to a putter. They often require ancillary mechanisms, fixtures and or jigs. A drawback with such devices is that components can become lost and damaged. In such instances, the entire device may become partially or wholly inoperable.
Still other devices are purely aiming devices such as sighting mirrors or directional indicators that a person uses to align the putter during the swing. A drawback with such devices is that they do not interact with a golf ball. Instead, they only provide assistance in aiming a putter.
The golf putting accessory of this application overcomes drawbacks associated with existing golf aiming and putting devices. It is easy to operate, invertible, allows precise positioning and significantly reduces the time needed to develop the skills needed to improve one's putting game.